Ultimate 2018 SEO Checklist: 30 Steps Before You Hit Publish

Now that you’ve created amazing, unique content. It’s time for you to make sure it gets the love it deserves.

Remember:

Your content won’t get all the visibility just by being awesome. You have to make sure you follow SEO best practices according to the latest search algorithms.

This checklist is a complete list of things you need to optimize your new content with before you hit the publish button. And the list has been updated to match 2018 search algorithms.

It might seem a long list and you might find a ‘short and sweet’ SEO checklist somewhere on the internet but then you’ll be doing it wrong. You need to follow this exact checklist for your content.

Really want the traffic your content deserves?

Here’s your checklist:

Use the main keywords in the page title

Use a page title under 60 characters

Use the main keywords at the beginning of the page title

Use the main keywords in the page descriptions

Use a page description less than 160 characters

Note: Even though you can now fit 230 characters in meta descriptions for Google Search Snippet you don’t have to go changing your existing ones as it is more of a “Dynamic Process”. This means that the whole 230 characters would only show up if Google thinks that it’s the best way to satisfy a user’s query.Believe me there are more important things to focus on.

Use the main keywords in the heading

Don’t follow the one-keyword per content rule. Include 2 or more keywords throughout the post

Generate LSI keywords — You can use the tool at lsigraph.com for this

Include LSI keywords in the page body, content, and heading tags

Use a short URL for the post with keywords included

Remove common words from the URL

If using SEO for WordPress, choose only one category per post

If using WP, use a maximum of up to 10 tags per post

Include an image or creative within the first 25% of the blog content

Use the keywords in the image alt tag

Create content with at least 1800 words if pillar post or at least 800 words if cluster post OR with 500 words if the post includes an infographic*

Include synonyms of the keywords in the content naturally

Add a media embed — video or presentation (more the merrier)

Include a downloadable file — PDF guides or template docs

Include 3+ external links

Include 3+ internal links within the content

Do a grammar and spelling check using an online tool

Use numbers in the content title or headings

Include a share to social media option in the content — you can use a plugin for this

Do the keyword research before writing the blog post

Include CTAs in your content

Ensure the publish date of the post is visible in the content

Include the most important keywords naturally in the H1 tag

If publishing Pillar content, make it at least 2000 words long and link to the respective cluster content*

If publishing Cluster content, make sure you link to the corresponding pillar content*

*Pillar and Cluster content explained below:

The pillar-cluster content architecture is more structured for SEO and all the content you publish in 2018 should follow this model. The idea is to have a Pillar content which is very long-form broad topic content and cluster content are relatively smaller posts on more specific topics. For example, ‘The Ultimate Guide for SEO 2018’ could be a 3000-word pillar content with videos, infographics, and multiple embeds while ‘The Ultimate 2018 SEO Checklist before Publishing Content’ can be a cluster content. There can be multiple cluster posts like this one for the pillar content, linking back to it. The pillar content should include a link to each cluster post while the cluster posts must link to the pillar content and can also have links to other associated cluster posts in the same pillar.

Ready to dominate search traffic in 2018?

Make sure you follow the exact checklist and watch the magic happen!

CLICK HEREto download the checklist excel version. You can track the SEO of all your content using this.

If you have any questions regarding the checklist or would like to add something to the list, tweet to me @reachrishabh and I’ll embed your tweet in this post!

And.. wait.

Here’s a little extra for you:

Want to 10x your traffic in 2018?

Check out the ‘SEO Mastery Course for 2018’ to not just optimize your content, but also learn SEO, website optimization techniques and marketing strategy for 2018. The course also includes the top 10 best SEO techniques for the coming year.

P.S. If you want to enroll in the course, just email me at rishabh@mapplinks.com

Moreover, The first 10 People who email me regarding the course will also get a special discount code!